JUNE 2015
AAGGO CONFERENCE ADELAIDE 7—10 OCTOBER 2015
ENGAGE WITH ART I ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES I ENGAGE WITH ADELAIDE
AAGGO COUNCIL TECHNICAL MATTERS Margaret Payne, AGSA Guide THE DECISION MAKING BODY OF OUR ORGANISATION
My special interest in guiding is the incorporation of information MEETS WEDNESDAY 7 OCTOBER 10:30am technology in all its many forms to make our lives as guides so
much easier. AAGGO reps will bring your MOTIONS to AAGGO Council for A part of my focus in the last several acceptance and incorporation. years has been the development of the AGSA Guides’ website and recently our NOW IS THE TIME FOR DISCUSSION OF IDEAS AAGGO 2015 Conference site. WITHIN AND BETWEEN OUR ORGANISATIONS It has been a joy to talk with Vanessa Burgess from the Ballarat Art Gallery CAN WE MAKE AAGGO MORE RELEVANT Guides who has similar interests. DO YOU WANT CHANGES Vanessa and I will jointly present a session at the AAGGO Conference on ? our use of current technology to COUNCIL DOES NOT DEBATE enhance guiding. COUNCIL ACCEPTS OR REJECTS MOTIONS
we don’t know what other Galley Guides are doing. BUT The deadline for submitting MOTIONS is Friday July 31. Do you have your own Web site? Are you longing to get started? HOW TO MAKE A NOTICE OF MOTION What do you communicate on-line? A NOTICE OF MOTION must begin with the word “THAT” The conference is an opportunity that only comes to us once “I propose THAT . . .” every two years. Let’s share our ideas and experiences. We would love to hear from you so that we may share your Distill your idea to one sentence. Follow up the MOTION with your innovations in our presentation. justification. Send the document to our Secretary, Maureen Nimon, Please contact me to chat by phone or email by July 31.
Interview with Jim Woodbury This process allows time for debate and the gathering of information. Newcastle Art Gallery guide, artist and teacher Maureen is waiting for YOUR IDEAS AAGGO Secretary: [email protected] What life experiences do you bring to guiding? My grandfather took me to the NSW Art Gallery as a lad and I have brought my daughter to art exhibitions. My aspiration was Which Gallery will host the to be a practising artist however I became a professional art 2019 Conference? teacher. Painting, drawing and print making have been my life. PROPOSALS NEEDED NOW
How do you decide that a guiding experience has Contact AAGGO Committee to express interest been successful? Spontaneous applause is good. I love engaging people in an exchange of ideas. Chairperson Pamela Harding Listening to audience reaction, even from a ten year old, is [email protected] important and can be most rewarding. If you gravitate towards the works that attract you personally it is easy to pass on your h passion. “A good tour ends with joy and positive Which work of art from the gallery’s collection has energy.” Jim Woodbury
been inspiring and interesting for you to guide? If you like to relax and be read to, look for Margel Hinder’s Abstract wood carving, 1952 (NAG collection) is Will Gompertz a beautifully crafted work from a single piece of timber. It is on Audible (an Amazon Company). modest in scale, abstract and geometric in form. It presents What Are You Looking At – 150 years of Modern Art multiple facets depending on your changing viewpoint. I am also Gompertz is the BBC Arts Editor and he’ll lead you through a lively intrigued by the cast shadows which appear to be an integral exploration of art history from the Impressionists to Banksy. Pop in the part of the work. It is the sort of domestic scale sculpture I earplugs and go for an entertaining and educational walk with Will, full of wit would love to own and live with. and insight. Seek him out on You Tube as well. Marilyn Bayley Sainsbury You can also find this 2012 Viking publication in ebook and print.
BATHURST 200 YEARS THE ROYAL TOUR
In May 2015 Bathurst celebrated its Bicentenary. Many Randal Ardvilla, community activities marked Governor Lachlan Macquarie’s guide at the MCA visit in 1815 and his proclamation of Australia's first inland settlement. I recently had the honour and pleasure to guide Her Majesty, Queen Sonja of Norway through Chuck The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) Volunteer Close's, Prints, Process and Collaboration at the Guides created an image of artist Jean Bellette for Bathurst Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. People in Time: a Peoplescape. This Despite my many years of tour experience guiding people event was made up of worldwide and from all walks of life I have to say what cut-out profiles of made this tour most fascinating and extra special was that 200 people significant Her Majesty is an artist herself. Our conversation in Bathurst’s history developed on technical matters: technique, composition, and assembled on the balance, negative and positive spaces. We enjoyed an in- forecourt of the city's depth discussion on Chuck Close's mastery, his processes, iconic courthouse and on the importance of collaboration within the print from May 1 to May making field. Without forgetting the responsibility I had 18. been appointed to, and who I was guiding, I felt this was nevertheless a conversation between artists, and what a Jean Bellette was an influential and significant figure in the great experience it was. Her majesty graciously expressed development of the arts in Bathurst. Flying weekly to Bathurst in how much she enjoyed the tour. the late 1940s, she established an art school for twenty students. In 1955 she was the inaugural winner of the Carillon City Art Prize. As the tour developed, Her Majesty was particularly Her winning work, 'Still Life', formed the genesis of the Bathurst interested in the mezzotints of ‘Keith 1972’ as she has also Regional Art Gallery's Permanent Collection. done mezzotints and knows how challenging this technique In 1954 Jean Bellette and her husband, the artist Paul Haefliger, can be. Chuck & Lichtenstein's paper pulp portraits were bought Haefliger's Cottage at Hill End, an old gold mining town near of great interest to her, especially the use of Mylar paper Bathurst. They became part of the artists' community with the artist which Her Majesty uses for some of her artworks. Donald Friend, who lived in Murray's Cottage. Their visitors included famous Australian artists such as Russell Drysdale, On the reception evening on Wednesday 25 Feb, Her Margaret Olley, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen, Brett Whiteley and David Majesty presented The Queen Sonja Print Award. There, I Strachan. had the honour to be guided by Her Majesty on her own art exhibit which focused on beautiful prints inspired by her Before her death in Majorca, Spain in 1991, Bellette bequeathed own photographs of landscapes of one of her most Haefliger's Cottage to the Department of Environment & favourite places: Spitsbergen which is an island located Heritage NSW Parks & Wildlife Service, on the condition that it beyond the Arctic Circle in the Svalbard archipelago in remained an artists' retreat. This was the catalyst for the northern Norway. Her Majesty was pleased to learn that I establishment of the internationally acclaimed Hill End Artists in have been in Spitsbergen a couple of times. Residence Program. In 2003 Donald Friend's former home, Murray's Cottage, was added to this program which is now administered by Bathurst Regional Council, BRAG and Parks & This was indeed an unforgettable experience and I am very Wildlife. To date 227 residencies have been awarded to both grateful for the opportunity to have toured such a charming Australian and international artists. and interesting visitor.
The Bathurst Regional Art Gallery's collection now totals over 2000 In 1982 Andy Warhol produced several portraits of Her Majesty Queen works worth $8.6 million dollars. The collection includes paintings, Sonja in connection with the Queen’s visit to the artist’s studio in New sculptures, ceramics, jewellery, photographs and installations with York. Queen Sonja herself has described her meeting with Warhol as a surreal the main focuses being post-1950s art, Lloyd Rees, Hill End, studio experience. ceramics and small sculptures. “He was small and thin, and quite pale with an unusual hair style. From March 27 to June 14 BRAG itself is marking the bicentenary He received us as if he were a king, and celebrity guests came with the exhibition Bathurst 200x200 in which 200 important and went, like a royal court. He was truly a respected man. He works from the permanent collection will be on display, including was pleasant, but taciturn and reserved, perhaps a little shy”
Jean Bellette’s ‘Still Life’. The exhibition, curated by BRAG’s Curator RECOMMENDED READING FOR JUNE Sarah Gurich, includes many works suggested by the volunteer guides. Be sure to call in if you are passing through Bathurst. – Lyn Cooper, S, (2010) The Model Wife: The Passionate Webster Lives of Effie Gray, Ruskin and Millais Apologies for not running this earlier – Ed.
ENGAGE WITH THE AAGGO CONFERENCE WEBSITE http://artgallery.sa.gov.au/agsa/home/Events/AAGGO.html EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW FOR OCTOBER IS HERE THIS NEWSLETTER AND PREVIOUS ISSUES ARE ALSO ON THE WEBSITE